Slant

“Collaborating on Permanent Housing Solutions” is the City Club of Eugene topic for noon Friday, Jan 28. Speakers are Debi Farr, community relations manager for Trillium Health Plan; Jacob Fox, executive director of Homes for Good; Michelle Hankes, CEO of ShelterCare; and Sarai Johnson, housing and shelter strategist for Lane County and Eugene. Listeners who cannot attend can watch a live stream. The in-person meeting at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street, requires proof of vaccination, booster and mask wearing. No lunch will be served.

Eugene Weekly is a tour of tastes this week as we explore everything from tacos in the Whit at the revamped Tiny Tavern to renowned mixologist Jeffery Morgenthaler’s canned Ninkasi cocktails. FYI, our cover photo is not in fact a bartender Tazing an innocent drink, though it might look that way. Nicole Kauffman is adding citrus vapor to Tavern on Main’s Globe Trotter cocktail, featuring pisco, Aperol, orange, lemon, cinnamon and  topped by that citrus vapor.  

• Why yes, we are doing Wordle in hard mode and ignoring the haters who whine about our joy in posting the little green and yellow image of our daily word game success. Fun fact: Wordle’s inventor went to the University of Oregon. The British software engineer behind the once-a-day word puzzle, Josh Wardle, graduated from the UO in 2011 with a digital arts MFA.

• Here’s a question for our Weekly readers. If our democracy is dying, as we are told repeatedly, why are so many people running for office? At least eight candidates are lined up to run for Peter DeFazio’s congressional seat. Do they think they can save democracy? Do they want to hasten its death? Tell us what you think about elections, democracy and the host of candidates.

• Another key race coming up in the 2022 election is the one for governor. Pro-Choice Oregon PAC has endorsed Democrat and former House Speaker Tina Kotek. On the other hand, high-profile candidate Nick Kristof’s current claim to fame is that he just got $15,000 from former Disney CEO Robert Iger. As the writer-farmer awaits the state Supreme Court’s decision on whether he has lived in Oregon long enough to actually qualify for the ballot, you can check out the Politico story by Brent Walth — Pulitzer Prize winner and co-director of the University of Oregon’s Catalyst Journalism Project. Walth takes a deep dive and a walk through downtown Yamhill to explore Kristof’s sometimes Trumpian candidacy. 

Eugene School District 4J’s interim superintendent, Cydney Vandercar, is one of the top two candidates for the superintendent position at Greater Albany Public Schools. That would be their gain and our loss, although we would not blame her if she wanted out of Eugene’s 4J district. A November 2021 study by the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Commission for Women shows a gender gap in Oregon superintendents with 75 percent of them male despite the fact the teacher workforce is overwhelmingly female. GAPS says it will announce who has been selected at its Feb. 3 meeting.